The super bowl is upon us, and the playoff games leading up to this point have been nothing short of extremely entertaining. The game will be held in two weeks at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California, featuring the home team, Los Angeles Rams, and Cincinnati Bengals. My original predictions held a super bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccanneers.

However, the Bucs fell short of the conference championship in a 30-27 loss in the divisional round to the Los Angeles Rams. After their victory over the Bucs, the Rams were sent to the conference championship game and are now headed to the super bowl after a 20-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

The NFC championship game was much closer than many, including myself, expected. Although the Rams were favored entering the game and still got the win, San Francisco hung tight with Sean Mcvay’s squad. The two NFC West teams were tied going into the last drive, and Matt Gay kicked a go-ahead 30-yard field goal with 1:46 left in regulation. The 49ers were unable to get back on the board, and the Rams are headed to the battle for the Lombardi trophy for the second time out of the last four years.

Spread apart over 30 different votes by students and staff, Lakeland has been 50/50 on who will win on the thirteenth of February. Fifteen voters predicted Joe Burrow and the Bengals would pull off the first super bowl win in franchise history. Fifteen different voters expect Aaron Donald and the Rams to win for the fourth straight week to obtain their second super bowl win in franchise history and the first since 2000.

While casting his vote, Richie Thomas said, “I got Bengals all the way; you can’t mess with Joe Burrow.” This postseason, Cincinnati’s quarterback has struck a quick fix of fame after upsetting the top two seeded AFC teams in Tennessee and Kansas City.

Conversely, Rams fan Blaze Day said, “As long as we lock up Ja’marr Chase, we will secure the dub.”

February 13 will play host to a huge matchup between four-seed teams that each won their respective conferences. I think that the Rams defense is too strong, and they will win their second ring in a 23-13 win over Burrow’s cinderella story Bengals.